Boris Berezovsky no longer has a party that could participate in the December Duma elections. The Ministry of Justice refused to register regional branches of "Liberal Russia" according to Berezovsky, recognizing only "Liberal Russia" of Viktor Pokhmelkin as legitimate. According to political scientists, the party of the disgraced oligarch will not be able to participate in the elections.

In March 2002, at the congress of "Liberal Russia", this movement was transformed into a party with five co-chairmen: Sergei Yushenkov, Viktor Pokhmelkin, Vladimir Golovlev, Boris Zolotukhin and Boris Berezovsky, who volunteered to finance the party. But already in the autumn of last year, "Liberal Russia" split. The reason was Berezovsky's interview with the left-patriotic newspaper "Zavtra", in which he advocated the creation of a broad "left-right opposition".

The other co-chairs, headed by Yushenkov, were outraged by this, and at the congress the party broke off relations with Berezovsky. However, several regional branches supported the disgraced businessman and on December 7 held an extraordinary congress of "Liberal Russia", reinstating Berezovsky in the party and expelling the other co-chairs, headed by Yushenkov. Today, "Berezovsky's wing" is led by former Secretary of the Security Council Ivan Rybkin, and is opposed by "Liberal Russia", headed by Viktor Pokhmelkin, who replaced the murdered Yushenkov in this post.

Both parties intended to participate in the December Duma elections. To this end, Berezovsky's supporters submitted documents to the Justice Ministry to register regional branches. On Friday, it became known that the ministry does not intend to register branches of Berezovsky's supporters. First Deputy Minister Yevgeny Sidorenko, who oversees political parties, told Interfax that the ministry "considers the decisions of the bodies of this part of the party to have no legal force, since they were adopted in violation of the law and the party charter." According to the official, "only one party, Liberal Russia, is registered with the Justice Ministry, co-chaired by Viktor Pokhmelkin and Boris Zolotukhin."

A source among Berezovsky's supporters told Vedomosti that the official refusal to register the branches has not yet arrived from the Ministry of Justice. "As far as we know, no inspections have been conducted on the grounds," the source claims. According to him, as soon as the notification of the refusal to register with the reasoning is received, Berezovsky's supporters "will appeal to the courts," because they consider the behavior of the Ministry of Justice to be politically motivated.

Pokhmelkin's supporters are convinced that these efforts will be fruitless. "Let them file lawsuits. They are constantly violating the charter. This will be obvious in any court case," Yuli Nisnevich, executive secretary of the central council of Pokhmelkin's Liberal Russia, told Vedomosti. According to him, "the ministry gave the correct legal assessment of the situation, which should have been done long ago."

Political analysts predict that Berezovsky's party will not be allowed to participate in the elections. According to the law on parties, all candidates for participation in the Duma elections had to register their regional branches no later than July 1. Those who did not have time will not participate in the elections. Andrei Ryabov from the Carnegie Center says that the Justice Ministry's refusal to register regional branches is an "armor-piercing legal argument" that will not allow Berezovsky's political structures to be elected to the Duma.

Berezovsky is out of the game